


Maps

by rinthegreat



Category: Free!
Genre: Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 07:02:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9589895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: At this point it was expected; Sousuke would call him up, Rin would search, then give him actual step-by-step directions to lead Sousuke to wherever.





	

            Rin’s woken up to the sound of his phone ringing.  He groans, not even lifting his head, as he grabs it.  He squints, trying to find the green answer button before pressing it to his ear.

            “Do you have any idea what time it is, Sousuke?”  He grunts into the phone, throat hoarse with sleep.

            The ringtone is what gave it away; this week it’s Ariana Grande.  Rin’s been in a dancing mood.  He and Sousuke don’t have a ‘song’, not the way couples usually do.  Instead it’s more like every song reminds Rin of his far off boyfriend, so he switches it up almost weekly depending on his mood.

            There’s a soft chuckle on the other end.  Despite himself, Rin smiles.  “Your alarm will go off in about 10 minutes anyway.”

            God, he misses that voice.  They talk near constantly, but even so that’s not enough for Rin.  Never enough.  He puts the lilt of Sousuke’s words, the changes in tone, to mental images of what he thinks his boyfriend looks like when he says them.  He’s built up a cache in his head, a mental vault of every expression Sousuke’s ever made from the time they spent together all last year, to the skype sessions they have sporadically, whenever their schedules line up.  But it’s not the same, not enough to quench the desire in Rin’s heart.

            “I only _have_ 40 minutes to sleep between class and practice, Sou.  You know this.”  He complains, but there’s no heat to his words.  He’d take talking to Sousuke over sleep any day, and both of them know it.

            “Are you near a computer?”

            Rin lets out an overly dramatic sigh and rolls out of bed, pulling his laptop towards him.  There’s a crack in his blinds, letting in the mid-afternoon light but otherwise the room is dark.  It takes a moment for the computer to boot, a moment filled with patient breaths on the other side of the line and background chatter indicating, as if there were any doubt, that Sousuke’s outside.

            The redhead doesn’t even bother asking what it’s about; he already knows.  The moment his computer boots, he has google maps open and loaded.  “Alright, give me a street sign.”

            It takes a minute, as it always does, for Sousuke to respond.  Rin immediately types the cross street into the search and watches the map jump from Sydney to Tokyo before zooming in.  “And where are you trying to go?”

            “Back to my dorm.”  Rin plugs the address he has memorized in, giving him route options, and he starts leading Sousuke back over the phone.

            The exchange is normal for them, something that happens almost twice a month.  Rin questioned it at first, asked why Sousuke didn’t call Makoto or Haru – “you’re in the same city as them aren’t you?” – or why he didn’t search on google himself.  (Sousuke had reminded him of the time they went on a date to Himeji, and Sousuke had managed to get lost in that small city, even with google maps literally telling him which way to go.  Rin had fallen against a building from laughing so hard, and it was by far his favorite date they’d been on.)

            At this point it was expected; Sousuke would call him up, Rin would search, then give him actual step-by-step directions to lead Sousuke to wherever.  It helped ease the ache of missing him, and Rin got the impression that sometimes his boyfriend would get intentionally lost just so they could talk.  And he called _Rin_ the romantic.

            “How’s physical therapy going?”  Rin asks between streets.  He gets updates via email every day, but that doesn’t mean he is going to stop asking.

            “I’m actually coming back from my appointment now.  I just got the ok to swim once a week.”

            Rin perks up at that.  “Were you going to _tell_ me?”  He asks, feigning dramatics.

            Sousuke chuckles, deep and fond.  “I just told you, didn’t I?”

            _Marry me._   The thought pops into his head, half a comeback.  Rin’s breath hitches.  They’re barely 19, he hasn’t even made the national team, and he has over three years of college to go.  They’re way too young to be thinking about something as permanent as marriage, but here he is, thinking it anyway.

            He waits too long to respond, and Sousuke speaks up again, quieter.  “Are you…mad?”

            Rin shakes himself out of it.  A spontaneous phone call on a Tuesday is not time to propose to his boyfriend who is _in a different hemisphere_.  One hour time difference be damned, the flight itself is long, the seasons down here opposite.  He may as well be on a different planet.

            “I’m not mad.”  He promises, voice pitched low.  “Have you reached the next intersection yet?”

            “…Yeah.  Just now.”  There’s a hesitation and Sousuke clears his throat.  “Rin, I really was planning to tell you –“

            “I’m not mad.”  Rin promises, because he _isn’t_ , but he’s also not going to tell Sousuke what he’s really thinking.  Not yet.  “Take a right here.  It’s three streets down.”

            As if on cue, his alarm goes off, blaring bird tweets and whatever the _fuck_ and Rin lets out a swear.  “Shit, Sou, I have to get ready for practice.  Can you get back from here?”

            “It looks familiar…”

            Rin laughs at that, nervous for no reason.  “It should; you’ve lived there almost a year.”  He really has to hang up and get ready for practice.  But he doesn’t.  He sits there, directions still loaded on his computer, teeth worrying at his lower lip.  It’s the small moments like this that get to him, make him wish teleporters were real.  He should call Rei, tell him to work on inventing them before anything else.

            “Rin?”  The question in his ear informs him he was quiet too long again.

            “I really have to get ready.”  He tells himself more than his boyfriend.

            “Yeah…”  Sousuke’s hesitating just as much as he is.  Rin can read him well enough to know he’s not ready to hang up yet.  But Rin’s alarm doesn’t care.  The second one, the ‘you really need to get up now or coach is gonna lecture you’ one screeches.

            He silences it without a curse, setting his computer aside.  “I’ll call you later.”  He doesn’t specify when ‘later’ is.  They never do, not with how chaotic their schedules can get.

            “I love you, Rin.”

            “I love you too, Sou.”

            He ends the call, letting his hand fall to the bed.  Long distance sucks, it really does.  He takes a breath before getting up to get ready for practice.

            The one face of Sousuke’s he can’t picture, the tone of voice he has no file to match haunts him.  For all their conversations, all the dates and kisses they’d shared before Rin took off, they’ve never had the courage to say _I love you_ face to face.


End file.
